14 DAY TRIAL // The Steam client has just received a brand new patch designed to implement the long-awaited Music Player feature into the program, as well as to improve various other things, such as the general stability of the application or its in-home streaming system.
It's a busy week for Valve, as not only has the studio released the Discovery update for the Steam digital distribution service, bringing an improved user interface and plenty of new features to the storefront, but it's also working on the major Dota 2 patch 6.82, which has lots of changes planned for the popular multiplayer title.
The new Steam update brings the Music Player function
Now, the studio has rolled out an actual patch for the Steam client, which introduces quite a few new things, starting with the Music Player feature, which is now available for all users of the service.
The new mechanic should make it much easier to listen to music while playing games on Steam or just while having the service running in the background. You can listen to MP3 files from your computer as well as listen to the soundtracks you've bought via the Steam service from various games.
"Point Steam to the MP3s on your computer, then browse your collection of albums and artists. You’ll also find your Steam Soundtracks DLC in your Steam Music library when the associated base game is installed," Valve says on its website.
"Listen to albums, queue up mixes, and create playlists you love, right in your Steam library. Best of all, it’s all available right within the Steam Overlay, so you can control playback without leaving your game. The Steam Music library and player consist of all the basics you need to enjoy your music without switching tasks."
In order to celebrate the release of the Steam Music Player, Valve is running a 75% discount on some of its games, from the original Half-Life to Half-Life 2 and its episodes, as well as Portal 1 and Portal 2. As usual, the Valve Complete Pack is also available with a reduced price.
Lots of other improvements are also included in the patch
The new Steam update also brings a suite of improvements for the actual client, adding a few tweaked features for the Chat and Family View systems, as well as fixing a few problems with the offline mode. The game should also consume less resources across all systems.
The in-home streaming function has also been improved, especially when running on AMD hardware, while fixing certain glitches.
The new Steam client update will be automatically downloaded the next time you start the application.